But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
– 1 Timothy 6:11–12
There’s so much here, and I could lead us to pray according to just either of these verses. There’s so much in both of them. But I want to tie them together and lead us to pray accordingly. 1 Timothy 6:11 talks about fleeing sin and pursuing. Listen to the list: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. That’s six things 1 Timothy 6:11 commands us to pursue.
1 Timothy 6:11–12 Encourages Us to Engage in Spiritual Warfare
And so, we could just pray according to those six things. But then, verse 12, right after this, Paul writes, Fight the good fight of the faith. And the implication is clear. In order to pursue these things, it’s going to be a battle. There is a spiritual battle involved in the pursuit of righteousness and godliness and faith and love and steadfastness and gentleness. And if we are not engaging in that spiritual battle, we will never experience the righteousness and godliness and faith and love and steadfastness and gentleness that God has designed us for. We’ll experience the opposite. We’ll experience sin and immorality and godlessness and lack of faith and lack of love. We won’t be steadfast and we won’t be gentle if we are not intentionally engaging in spiritual battle for these things, taking hold of the life that God has called us to.
So I just want to lead us to pray these things over our lives today, realizing that they will not be realities in our lives if we are not intentional about fighting the spiritual battle. These things will not come easy to us or naturally to us or accidentally to us. These things will only come by the grace of God as we engage in spiritual battle for them today.
1 Timothy 6:11–12 Encourages Us to Strive for Godly Living
So God, we pray these things over all of our lives right now. We pray for righteousness, knowing that today we will face all kinds of temptations. Tomorrow, we will face all kinds of temptations to not do that which is right, good, and pure before You. So help us to fight for righteousness today, for godliness. Oh, God, we want to reflect your character today, and we know we are tempted continually to not reflect your character, your ways, your Word, your truth, your love. God, we pray that you would help us to be godly today, help us to fight for godliness.
God we pray for faith. We know that we are constantly tempted to doubt you, to turn from you, to not trust in you. God, help us to fight today for faith. Yes, what a good fight, verse 12, that is. God, help us to fight for faith today, for love. Lord, we pray that you would keep us, guard us, save us from selfishness, from lack of love for others.
God help us to fight to love others as ourselves, to lay down our lives in sacrificial, selfless care for other people. God, we pray for steadfastness in our lives. We pray for faithfulness in us. Help us to fight for this today, that we might not be driven and tossed by the wind up and down in our faith, that we be steadfast, especially under trial. God, help us to fight for steadfast faith in the middle of trials we are walking through.
And God, we pray for gentleness. God, help us to fight for gentleness. God, we pray for fruit of your Spirit in our lives. We pray for gentle spirits, gentle demeanors, a gentle Christ-like posture toward all who are around us.
Oh, God, we pray that you’d help us to fight for all these things in ways that lead us to take hold, to experience the life you’ve designed for us, a life of righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. In Jesus’ name.
Prayer for the Comorian People
And oh God, we pray today for the Comorian people of France, this Muslim people group in the middle of France, among whom there is no known followers of Jesus. God, we pray, we want them to have the eternal life we just prayed over each other, the eternal life that’s possible only in you. Jesus, we cannot experience righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness apart from your forgiveness of our sin. And you’re filling us with your spirit, and you’re giving us the life that you have designed us to live in you. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to the Comorian people, that they might experience this eternal life that 1 Timothy 6:11–12 describes. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
